Lost in Purgatory

Chapter 12

There was a slight problem with promising to wait for Oliver. Felicity had never been a very patient person.

Although for the first few weeks after she came back from the island, she was waiting – but it was more a state of stunned depression than anything else.

Once they were back on US soil, the representatives of the agency that had rescued everybody from Lian Yu (yes, Felicity knew what they were called, but she remembered Oliver's warning, especially when none of the heavily armed men ever identified themselves) had laid down the law: these last weeks had never happened.

Felicity was given all sorts of records to prove that she'd had an episode, as they were calling it – what in the past would have been called a 'nervous breakdown'. It was what she was compelled to tell her mother. In fact, when she looked up her flight, she found nothing to prove that it had ever existed. All the people on the plane had died in unrelated accidents, all over the world. She got the hint – if she didn't keep her mouth shut, a similar accident would be arranged for her – a real one, in her case.

There was even some money which was transferred to her account – when she protested, she was told to think of it as an insurance payout. She'd also been told that Tatiana and Vlad had been returned to their home, and given the same deal. She hoped that it was the truth, as she had no way of finding out for herself; she suspected that carrying out extensive online research about anything that had happened on the island would be a bad idea, and yet another thing which would cause her to disappear without a trace.

So she moved to Silicon Valley, and took a job with a tech corporation, and waited. At first, she scoured online news agencies for Oliver Queen every day. As the days passed, it diminished to every week. Soon, she couldn't even spare the time for that, and the weeks she'd spent on the island were starting to seem more and more like a dream. Had it all really happened to her? Had she really killed a man? She occasionally looked up all the information about Oliver Queen pre 'boating accident', and found it hard to reconcile the selfish, brash, party boy with the serious man she had met on the island.

As the weeks, and then months passed, Felicity couldn't even find time to check on Oliver anymore. On the one hand, work took up so much of her time. On the other, she'd developed a hobby of sorts, something which necessitated hours and hours of deep concentration. One false step could mean disaster. She didn't like to think too deeply about what she was doing, the kind of communities she was visiting – she just made sure she covered her tracks well. It was just a mental exercise, she told herself. She could give it up anytime she wanted to.

So, Felicity coasted for a few months. She didn't realise it at the time, but she wasn't engaging with anything or anyone, except her night-time activities, and she preferred not to think too deeply about those. Things came to a head one night, when she'd been online till three am, and was so buzzed on red bull and cola that even the thought of having to get up for work in three hours couldn't make her stop. Her body had decided otherwise, though.

Felicity is back on the island. It's a strange sensation, because she's sure that she's been working for Pica8 for a few months, but she's equally sure that she never left the island. She's not in the camp, though, nor in the poppy field. She's sitting high up on one of the peaks, and below her she can only see mist.

"He's lost, you know." The voice startles her. When she turns around, Tatiana is sitting next to her, but her voice is different. The accent is gone, which should seem strange, but is completely natural to Felicity.

Felicity turns away and looks at the sea of fog.

"He was supposed to find me," she answers.